eBay wierdness?

[vladhed]

I saw this
Nikon SP on ebay with 3 bids on it, highest being $10.50US

So I'd thought I'd pay at least 25$ (grin) for it so I put in a bid.
As soon as I hit "Confirm", it told me someone had outbid me by 1$, would I like to try 27$!!!!

So I tried 30$ and again it said someone had outbid me by 1$, would I like to try 32$!!!

Is this "William_and_Mary" using some sneaky auto-bidding function that I don't know about?

 

[taffer]

Vlad, in fact that's the normal way ebay auctions work, you put your maximum bid but the system only bids the necessary to win, increasing it by the amounts specified in the auction.

For example, that $10.50 bidder may have a limit of $1000, but the bid limit is never shown , unless you bid for something >$1000, that is 🙂 in that case you'd be the winner for $1001, or $1000.50, etc.

 

[vladhed]

heehee

heehee

I guess my ignorance comes from only ever bidding on FSU camera equipment where you're the only bidder!!!

 

[Pherdinand]

😀 lol, vladhed.

 

[laurentvenet]

well done, Vladhed !
I was ignorant like you before and amazed to see some CV lens starting at 50 $...
Ebay is amazing, for some weird stuff like FSU, you'll have some great bargain, and for some "wanted" stuff, price will finished higher than on cameraquest.com for instance.
It's like a drug then , bidding on some device I don't need and pretending to myself it could be a good gift for my father.

 

[JohnM]

Ebay can produce some strange results. In the past week, I've seen a used Bessa L with a Snapshot 25 go for $355 when the retail price of that BRAND NEW would be $298.

Yesterday, a CV 12mm wide went for $710 when the BRAND NEW retail price on CameraQuest is $595!

 

[doubs43]

Good points, John. It's smart to do your research before leaping into the ebay bidding game. It's easy to overpay if you don't know what the going value for an item is.

Sometimes you luck into a real bargain though and it's that possibility that keeps people coming back.

Walker

 

[pshinkaw]

There is a story on ABC News website today:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=234064

about some employees of perople who were selling on eBay. They plead guilty to "bidding up" items to raise the selling prices.

It's important to have a good idea of what the auction item is really worth and too stay out of the "bidding frenzy" psychology of an auction. I've seen some outrageous closing prices on "camera junk" from time to time.

-Paul

 

[nwcanonman]

Paul,
You're so right. If I see something I'm interested on Ebay, I'll go checking the prices at "real" camera stores with guarentees (like KEH or B&H). Then I won't bid more than 75% of those places, knowing the Ebay stuff has no guarentee or true grading system.
Patience is the key there.😉

 

[vladhed]

It's important to have a good idea of what the auction item is really worth and too stay out of the "bidding frenzy" psychology of an auction. I've seen some outrageous closing prices on "camera junk" from time to time.

Not to say the Nikon SP isn't worth more than 30$US, but I got a little suspicous when I saw the old "This was my brother/mother/cousins camera and I don't know anything about it" line...yeah, sure.

 

[doubs43]

"Not to say the Nikon SP isn't worth more than 30$US, but I got a little suspicous when I saw the old "This was my brother/mother/cousins camera and I don't know anything about it" line...yeah, sure."

Good point. Whenever I read "I don't know anything about cameras and don't know if this one works properly", I ALWAYS consider the camera to be broken and bid accordingly.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

I learned this lesson the hard way... by buying from an antique dealer. The camera was cosmetically unbeatable, but an operative dud.

After that experience, I simply decided to contact the seller first, ask a few pointed questions about the item and expect the seller to know what I'm talking about. Most of the times, too, I don't bid on items for sale by people who sell mostly "collectibles" because, as doubs says, they'll be dead.

At least I recover the money a year later, when I sold the camera for a bit less than I paid, to someone who, apparently, wanted it for parts.

Now... it usually pays to place odd bids, like $56.99 instead of $55. I lost a couple of items by silly amounts like $0.27 and, in one case $0.02 🙁 !

 

[pshinkaw]

A lot of newbie bidders tend to think in increments of $5 and $10 for bids. I've won a lot of them because I had a pre-emptive bid in for say $26.75, a newbie tried to get it for $25 and then tried to add one more dollar to the bid.

I also try to not to put in a pre-emptive bid for more than 75% of what I am really willing to pay for the item. The aditional 25% is what I use to play with. However, sometimes I just HAVE to have it. In that case I look for A Buy-it-Now (BIN) at a fair price. That's how I acquired my Retina IIIS and Canon 7.

Look for BIN's late Sunday night and early Monday mornings.

-Paul

 

[g0tr00t]

I always place bids that end in .99

 

[Rich Silfver]

Why would anyone place bids that end in .49 or .99 ?

Why not always .51 or .01 ?

 

[CleverName]

I guess the idea is to bid ever so slightly more than you think the other guy bidding will think you would bid. If the bid increment is .50, everyone knows you're gonna bid .51 so that you'll just barely outbid the other guy. Since everyone has caught on to this little trick, (and will bid .57 or .62), it really doesn't work anymore.
Just bid what you're willing to pay and walk away. If you lose, bid on the next one.

 

[doubs43]

However, sometimes I just HAVE to have it. In that case I look for A Buy-it-Now (BIN) at a fair price. That's how I acquired my Retina IIIS and Canon 7.

Look for BIN's late Sunday night and early Monday mornings.

-Paul

Paul, I also look first for BiN's if I know what I want to buy. I've been looking over Moskva folding cameras for awhile now and found a 2,4 & 5 at the same dealer, all with BiN's. I agonized for two days before finally buying the Moskva-4 because it seems to be in the best condition and fewer were made than of the Moskva-5 which I can always get later. The Moskva-2 looks to be in decent condition but not nearly as nice as the 4 & 5. It also doesn't have the 6x6 mask which both the 4 & 5 have.